A new category of semiconductor nonlinear mirrors for ultrafast pulse generation and switching

Author

Ci-Ling Pan ; Tze-An Liu ; Jia-Min Shieh ; Huang, K.F.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Electro-Opt. Eng., Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu, Taiwan

Volume

1

fYear

2001

fDate

15-19 July 2001

Abstract

We have demonstrated a new category of semiconductor nonlinear mirrors for ultrashort pulse generation. The saturation fluence of the strained saturable absorber mirror (SSBR) is as low as 10 pJ/cm/sup 2/ with normalized nonlinear reflectivity as large as 4% on resonance. The SSBR is thus also potentially useful as a nonlinear switching device. The carrier dynamics of the SSBR has been investigated in detail. We show that the wavelength-dependence of the fast and slow components of the carrier lifetime is significant for the performance of the SSBR as an effective saturable absorber for stable mode-locking.

Keywords

laser mirrors; laser mode locking; optical pulse generation; optical saturable absorption; optical switches; quantum well devices; semiconductor quantum wells; carrier recombination; carrier scattering; distributed Bragg reflector; exciton absorption resonance; nonlinear reflectivity; saturable fluence; self-starting mode-locking; semiconductor nonlinear mirrors; strained quantum-wells; strained saturable absorber mirrors; ultrafast pulse generation; ultrafast switching; Absorption; Laser mode locking; Laser tuning; Mirrors; Nonlinear optics; Optical pulse generation; Optical pumping; Optical scattering; Pulse generation; Quantum well lasers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2001. CLEO/Pacific Rim 2001. The 4th Pacific Rim Conference on

Conference_Location

Chiba, Japan

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6738-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEOPR.2001.967905

Filename

967905